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I 100% agree. This is something the coaching staff I’m apart of has been doing for the 3 years I’ve been there. We have kept pretty solid and steady numbers for a small 2a school. We had a kid last year as a state placer that wasn’t so good as a freshman and sophomore and had a decent junior year and by his senior year he only had two losses going into state. Granted it’s pretty rare for that to happen but It’s helped us tremendously because it’s giving those kids that aren’t so good as freshman and sophomores hope. If this kid can do that why can’t I? I think we were blessed with that situation and I understand that doesn’t happen at every school but it goes to show that coaches need to stick with those lower tier wrestlers and coach them up. If we want them to stick with the sport we need to give them reasons to stay. I had the chance to take our team to Disney this year and I don’t even know where to start with the benefits that it provided us. I didn’t have a roster of 14 studs but many of the kids were Jv guys. Give kids opportunities like this if possible! Something teenagers are really good at is talking. When they tell their friends that they got to go to Disney to wrestle it’s going to bring more guys out. I have heard that there are going to be numerous new guys in our room this year which excites me.

Here is what I also see from successful programs (in all sports) is the coaching from the bottom up approach. All programs are going to a few studs. The better programs have 10 or so studs. Guess what???... those are the easiest kids to coach. I see coaches coaching from the top down. Meaning... they spend the majority of time with their suds. Those kids are self motivated, and many times know more than their high school coaches. The successful coaches spend more time with their marginal kids and make them good. This not only builds depth, but makes those kids feel more important to the team. This results in retention, and the strengthening of the program. Show more love to the lesser kids. Let them know that they are a HUGE part of the program, and they are needed. That's another great way to keep kids around. Here is something that the vast majority can relate to: As a youth football coach, I was lucky to have my teams in the "super bowl" every season. All teams have a fairly even draft. All teams have two or three studs. The daddy ball coaches spend the whole practice focusing on their own kids and letting junior and his best buddy run the ball in every practice and every game. The other kids "get" to stand on the line and block. That leads to kids hating youth football and angry parents. Where as the successful youth coaches convince the kids that line play is the most important part of the game (which it is). They also find something that each kid does well, and makes them feel that each kid is the very best at doing that particular thing. The daddy ball coaches just "hide" the weaker kids and focus on junior and the other studs. If a kid is not a striper, give them the rock once a game! Put your studs on the line for a play or two. Let them put their hand in the dirt and help get the "lesser" players a few yards. That approach leads to happy well rounded players and happy parents. Every kid will want to play the following year. The kids will play hard for each other and the wins will come. I truly think that many of us can do a better job of developing our "lesser" wrestlers, and letting them know and feel how important that they are to the team. Let dem studs "put their hands in the dirt". Let them take a little time to build up the 2nd or 3rd tier guys. By doing a better job of this (coaching from the bottom up) we will grow depth and keep kids out. Oh.. by the way... Once the individual tourney starts.... go ahead and play daddy ball, with your best 14!!!!

If I don't get to jump into other threads and start on class wrestling, you don't get to come to this thread and make comments like this.

We coach and watch our wrestlers kick ass hoping to go onto the next level to wrestle in college and maybe a few go and try making the U.S. world team and Olympics Indiana wrestling has not gone down at all

Duals are great and I am glad the IHSAA mandated six duals for teams. However there comes a caveat, it's GOOD duals, duals that are rivalries or meaningful go a long way to attracting casual fans. Not nearly as many people will go see Brownsburg vs. Danville or a school they will beat by 60+. The key with duals is make it special, we have said it before DJ's, make it a favorite teacher night, throw out t-shirts, etc. If it's cool to go to, more casual fans including students will show up.

Is a must for what? The training "365 a year" is a big downfall to this whole conversation. We've lost casual wrestlers because a combination of things. But training every day of the year is going to drop retention rates terribly. Youth are getting burnt out from a youth season that starts in November and ends in March. But "if you want to be good you need to do Freestyle and Greco too." So now youth wrestling can be until May. It's no wonder that retention rate of athletes and coaches is so low. This isn't just wrestling, but the youth sports culture is so out of control that parents are pulled 100 different directions. It's easy to stop taking their child to wrestling when they have to travel for wrestling, baseball and basketball, etc... At the high school level, we are asking our kids to train year round because we want them to be the best. But at smaller schools where those athletes do more than 1 sport they don't have time to train year round for 2 or 3 sports. I know coaches that get upset at athletes that aren't there all summer and spring, but if you want to know the truth, those part-time athletes are what is going to keep this sport competitive at semi-state and regional levels. We can't diminish their value because they aren't a state placer or aren't there every off-season practice. More participants will always help increase the competition level.

Most teams can't fill a full line-up let alone two full line-ups. V2 teams are a rich get richer advantage and only helps those specific teams.

Youth wrestling has something like a 53% retention rate. Even though our membership numbers are rather equal from year to year, we have to replace almost half of the kids from year to year. Here is the report with the retention rates http://content.themat.com/2016-17annualreport.pdf